The new back porch

The back porch was in such rough condition that we pulled off parts of it by hand when we first started working on the house. Six years later, it was the last major house project we hadn't tackled. A year after talking with a contractor, it's still not quite done, but that's a whole different story.

The siding is a 7" Perfection Shingle in Red Cedar by Foundry, with matching corners.


The stone veneer is Top Rock in Realen by Stonecraft.

Dreaming of a new front porch

Now that spring is just weeks away and spring-like weather is already here, I'm thinking of how nice it will be someday to sit out on the front porch reading to the children or looking at the stars.

The existing porch is falling away from the house and the floorboards are rotting and, in some places, fallen right through. A remodeled porch has always been on our list since we decided to renovate the house, but it has been of lesser importance than essentials such as a new roof and basement windows.

The roof was completed last year, the windows should be replaced soon, so I'm beginning my front porch wishlist.

New columns as the old ones have rotted.

Remove the vinyl siding and replace with traditional porch spindles (which of the scads of styles possible is the question).

Railings high enough to keep the boys safe.

A simple swinging front gate to keep little ones on the porch.

Trex or other very durable floorboards. No use having to redo the porch again too soon.

Screen the whole porch in? It would be nice to keep mosquitoes and cats out, though I'm concerned about screening/frames looking too modern, blah or like an afterthought.

New front steps. Wider?

Extend the depth of the porch as much as possible under the existing roof so we can comfortably use the space with our existing porch furniture.

While I'm dreaming, I'd love to wrap around a corner/side of the house so we have a place to grill, even if that portion isn't roofed and is either open or with a orthopaedic over top.

A way to attach flower boxes to the railing? Definitely think about where hanging flower baskets, porch pots and bird feeder(s) will go.

Two or three clotheslines for drying across the length of the porch. Maybe retractable or high above seating areas. I can maybe install these as long as the carpenter gives me strong supports to which to attach them.

KEEP THE EXISTING, ORIGINAL BEADBOARD CEILING!

Paint the front door green?

I'm not sure what will look best for skirting. All I know is that I hate lattice. Actually I do know what would look best: fieldstone. But let's be reasonable about affordability. I've never seen a faux stone panel that doesn't look too fake for me, but I'll keep an open mind in case I have seen one on a house that looked so nice I didn't even realize it wasn't the real thing.

This is how my home was meant to look!

Sort of.

This picture took my breath away. When it's late at night and everyone else is sleeping, the thought of shingles beginning to curl gets me thinking about a new roof, which gets me thinking about roofing materials and colors, which after time spent reviewing Consumer Reports gets me thinking about coordinating with shutters I don't even have, and a porch that is not remodeled either.

I learned that the style of our dormer is called a shed dormer. And that this 1920 builder's ad is gorgeous.

I feel like our house is farmhouse in the back, trying-to-be-a-bungalow in the front. Using even a few of the ideas from this home catalog picture would help our house look intentional. Someday.

I even like the name. The Marsden.

Further Googling tells me The Marsden was a kit from Aladdin Homes which was located in Bay City! This style was offered from 1912 to 1922. Apparently at least according to some random person posting, the home in this picture still stands a few blocks away from the Aladdin Homes factory. That tells me that the 1928 remodel of our house could truly have been inspired by this home. Either that or it was just a generically popular design in the '20s. Either way, it's cool.


Here's another version from the Central Michigan University Clarke Historical Library web site. They have a collection of Aladdin documents.

Pictures of the new house

Some of you have asked to see pictures of the finished house. I was going to wait until we were all settled in with the house looking perfect, then realized that will never happen. Bob assures me you'll look past the cardboard boxes and messy closets.

Kitchen

These are the old kitchen cabinets, from 1929. They don't have fancy drawer glides or pull-out trays, but they work just fine for me. Keeping them was 5 parts sentimentality, 2 parts economy, and 1 part crazy. I think they are absolutely beautiful and the highlight of the house.

A lot of sweat went into bringing these cabinets back to life. They had a number of coats of paint though Great Grandma B. stripped them a couple decades ago. The frames had even more layers. We (and by we, I mean a little me, a little my brother, and mostly family friend Steve) spent hours stripping the doors and drawers over the winter in my parents' farm shop. Many gallons of stripper went into the restoration. Then Steve sanded, primed and painted them. I wanted them to be the color of butter.

I took on the cabinet hardware. I think I could have found suitable replacements to mimic the old style, but once I counted them up I realized it would get really expensive even if they were only a few bucks apiece. I tend toward keeping the old anyway, but these were in rough shape so I wasn't sure if I could. First I stripped them in my crock pot (see the old post about that). Then Addy, Bob, Mom and I used Brasso to clean them up. Finally I found a Rust-Oleum Hammered Copper spray paint and gave them a few coats. Finding new screws was as much a challenge as anything. That alone cost $50. There are 344 screws in the hardware!

Pat did some retrofitting of the cabinets to accomodate space for the dishwasher.

There are four recessed lights in the room, plus a vintage porcelain keyhole lamp over the sink (original to the house, but was in a different location) and the vintage light in the middle of the room that I found in my parents' garage. My brother-in-law enlisted Keystone Antiques in Marshall to find the missing parts for the fixture.

This is the opposite wall of the kitchen, with new cabinets. The house originally had a wood stove in the kitchen and refrigeration was accomplished by lowering butter and eggs to the basement through a pulley system in one of the kitchen cabinets (yes, I kept it!). Over time, a fridge and stove were added but with nothing built in and no cabinets around them. We added these few Michigan-made Merillat cabinets. Originally Pat was going to build some to match the old, but I decided I wanted contrast -- that look of the kitchen being added to over time -- and some stained wood.

The close-up is of the iron maple leaf and twig knobs and pulls that Addy spotted in a big box store. The flooring has faint leaves in it, including accurate sugar maple, and the counter top is a crackled brown that I'm pretending looks like a crackly fallen leaf after a long winter.



The breakfast nook is just off the kitchen. I wanted the chimney to be exposed. The arch was originally the opening between the living and dining rooms, but we opened up those rooms so they're used as one. This arch is such a beautiful feature of the house that we didn't want to lose it. Moving it here became the ideal solution. We bumped into what was a downstairs bedroom to steal space for this nook.

Bathroom

The vanity is the same as the kitchen cabinets and the countertop is the same crackled brown.

You can't see how pretty the vanity light is, but I think it is and I paid $4 for it at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Living room

It's hard to show in pictures how we opened up the space between the living room, dining room and kitchen when I can only show you choppy pictures of one part of the area at a time. At left is the entryway into the living room. I didn't want dirty shoes on the new carpet, so the entry is tiled with remnant tile from a furniture and flooring store.

At right are the kids in as much of the living room as I could get into one picture. It has a ceiling fan in the middle (currently awaiting rewiring) and two pendant lights so we can sit and read.

Dining room

The dining room and living room are now basically one big room with only a header dividing them. We painted and carpeted them the same.

Someday this will be where we have a buffet, a nice dining table and maybe a china cabinet, but for the next 18 years it is our crowded school room full of books, puzzles and science kits.

This arch was the walkway between the dining room and kitchen. That's all opened up now, so I asked Pat to set this out in front of the wall. I call it a wall niche. Eventually a nice portrait will hang in it.

Office

Ooh, I can't believe I'm showing you this. I still need to manage my computer cords and this room is chock full of unopened boxes waiting for me to put things away.

Hall

This was an enclosed stairway, so we opened it up. The house feels so much more open now. The stained glass window once hung in Maggie and Dick's house. When I mentioned the idea of using a transom window to get light to the dark hallway, they offered this. It looks perfect and we are thankful.

The quilt was a wedding gift from my sister Beth, which was completed in time for our 5th anniversary.

Bathroom

We took a very small bedroom and existing bathroom and turned them into one bathroom/laundry.

The maple leaves in the tub surround tile are made from leaves from the woods. I mailed them to an artist in Washington that I found on Etsy.com and he made these in exchange for some maple syrup. Aren't they fabulous?

I call this Bob's shower, because he's usually the only one to use it.

We love having the laundry upstairs. It only made sense to us to have the washer and dryer right where we dress. Now the laundry gets done since it's not hidden in the basement!

Master bedroom

Our room is long and narrow, but it's the biggest room in the house. I love the orange (it's called Chivalry Copper). I'm glad I ignored everyone who told me to paint the house a single neutral color for now. I know I never would have gotten to adding color in the future. I have kids underfoot! So we spent the time upfront and painted every room a fairly bold color.

The closet and sewing room was once a small bedroom. Pat opened it up so it adjoins the master bedroom. You don't get to see the sewing room half of it yet because it is all cardboard boxes so far.

Girls' bedroom

I had Pat do double closet rods with Addy's clothes on top and Dori's on the bottom.

Guest room

The main feature in the guest room is the wardrobe that was built for Great Aunt Lillian and lifted into the house through an upstairs window. I love it. We also exposed the chimney in this room. Other than that the room is empty until we get our twin beds from Reed City and do some shifting around of beds.

So that's most of the house! I'm not allowing you to see the mudroom until I unpack the boxes in there. I also strategically positioned the camera to avoid showing you other boxes throughout the house, so when those are taken care of I'll take more pictures later.

Moving ...

... today!

Thankful

I'm almost overwhelmed with the amount of work ahead of us as we finish our last bits of packing and move everything we own into the house.

I'm also thankful. One of my brothers will be helping us move, and bringing a family friend. A sister and her husband are coming to help and feeding the crew lunch. A nephew will join us Saturday. A neighbor offered to help. My mother-in-law will watch the girls and feed us dinner while my father-in-law helps with the boxes.

Others would make it if they could.

We are blessed.

Still to pack

If I don't make a list, it doesn't get done. I still need to pack:

1. Items in sewing cabinet.
2. Stray items in office.
3. Computer! (wait until last minute)
4. Seal up boxes in office closet.
5. Top cupboard in hallway.
6. Fabric in hall closet.
7. Take apart the swingset.
8. LLL stuff.
9. Stray items from bedroom.
10. Put clothes Bob and I need this week into big blue suitcase.
11. Put clothes girls need this week into little pink suitcase.
12. Items from top of Addy's dresser.
13. Jewelry boxes.
14. Outgrown clothes in basement.
15. Clothes near washer/dryer.
16. Cleaning supplies on basement shelves.
17. Items above kitchen pantry.
18. Cookbooks.
19. Food from pantry. (Continue to eat up what's in fridge and freezer.)
20. Last year's school books.
21. Miscellany from basement.
22. Clothespins and other laundry items.